How to Hide User Accounts from the Welcome Screen in Windows 7 and Vista

Re-Share This Post:

As you know, on bootup, Windows 7 and Vista give you a Welcome screen with a list of user accounts created on the computer. Such a list is available only in the case such accounts have been password-protected. If you don’t like the idea that other users may see your account and you wish to hide it and protect your privacy, here is a simple hack to disply only the fields to inster the username and password, in perfect Windows XP style.

1. Click Start.
2. In the Search field, type regedit and press Enter.
3. Locate the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software \Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Policies \System.
4. In the right pane, double click the DontDisplayLastName and set its value to 1.
5. Click OK to confirm.
6. Restart the computer for the change to take effect.

If the above hack doesn’t work, try this:

1. Go to your Windows registry and locate this key: HKEY_Local_Machine \SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ SpecialAccounts\UserList
2. Now, right-click the UserList folder located on the left pane and from the menu, select New – DWORD (32-bit) Value
3. Name the new DWORD as the username you want to hide and click OK.
4. Restart the computer for the changes to take effect.
5. Upon restaring your computer, you should see that the account you wanted to hide won’t disappear on the welcome screen!